Broken Bow Lake, Reservoir in McCurtain County, Oklahoma, United States

Broken Bow Lake is a reservoir in McCurtain County in southeastern Oklahoma that covers roughly 56.7 square kilometers and is surrounded by forested hills. The water is clear enough to see the bottom in many coves, and the jagged shoreline forms dozens of small inlets and peninsulas.

The Mountain Fork River was dammed in the late 1960s to control flooding and provide drinking water, requiring the relocation of the village of Hochatown. The reservoir filled by 1970 and opened shortly after for recreation and fishing.

The lake's name comes from Broken Bow, Nebraska, the home town of the Dierks brothers, lumbermen who named the Oklahoma town. The old settlement of Hochatown, founded by Choctaw Indians in the early 1830s and later flooded by the reservoir, gives its name to the state park on the shore. Anglers fish year-round for trout and bass.

Facilities cluster around the northern and eastern shores, where boat launching ramps, camping and picnic sites, beaches and sanitary facilities are provided. Two marked trails start nearby: the quarter-mile Big Oak Nature Trail, level enough for small children and older visitors, and the two-way Beaver Lodge Nature Trail south of the dam, which follows a stream through a pine-covered valley.

Hiking trails like the David Boren Trail wind through pine forests to raised viewpoints that overlook hundreds of coves and islands. Some sections follow rocky ridges that rise above the water and offer views into remote arms that boats rarely reach.